October 22, 1999

Page 1

What Do You Have To Say?

We would like to get some testimonials from you online marketers. We are interested in hearing about your achievements in marketing in the online world. If you would like to share your story with us, we would love to hear from you.

Drop us a note with your story. True stories only. NO HYPE! Testimonials will be reviewed and may appear in a future issue. ezine@prodigy.net

Also, let us know what you think of our content and layout and ways you think it could be improved. Your suggestions and comments will help us bring you a better newsletter.

HTML Writers Guild
www.hwg.org

The HTML Writers Guild is the world's largest international organization of Web authors with over 103,000 members in more than 150 nations worldwide. This organization is a great resource to all of us web authors who are looking to enhance our skills. There is a FREE trial membership and I believe you won't be disappointed.

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Page 2

Tracking Your Ad Response

The quickest, easiest, and best way to lower your marketing costs is to market smarter. One way to market smarter is to track ad response.

When you track response, you instantly leverage your marketing dollars in your favor.

For example, if you've written an ad, do a test run to a limited market, using 4 different versions of the ad. Use a different headline for each version, but keep the rest of the ad exactly the same (this is important).

Then list the phone number differently for each version. For example, you could add "extension 101" after the telephone number in version #1, "extension 102" in version #2, etc.

By tracking the number of callers who request each extension, you'll know which headline is the most effective. Use that headline for the full-scale promotion.

Source:
Markus Allen's Marketing Tip of the Day

This Week's "In The Spotlight"
written by Rick Barr

In the spotlight this week is Adland Pro. This site is perhaps one of the best places to place ads. The response rate is good and there are plenty of tools to help you in your marketing ventures. Check them out today. www.adlandpro.com

On To Page 3

Page 3

Beginning HTML
written by Nicole Bibee

Forms

Today we are going to talk about creating forms with HTML. However we will need to understand how they are interpreted and processed on the net.

First of all HTML does support the tags to create these forms but it doesn't know how to process the information. In order to process the information we will need to send it to a program running on the web server. This program is called CGI script (Common Gateway Interface). This program is a set of instructions or commands running on the web server that receives data from web pages and acts on that data to perform a certain task.

Due to the CGI script running on the web server, we as web page authors might not have permission to access or edit them. In this case, you will need to get the specifications of that particular web server.

A form element can be one of 6 properties:
1) Input Boxes - for text and numerical entries
2) Radio Buttons - a single choice of several options
3) Selection Lists - for a long list of options in a drop down list
4) Check Boxes - to specify an item as being either present or absent
5) Text Areas - for extended entries that might include several lines of text
6) Submit and Reset Buttons - to submit the form to the CGI script or reset

*Definitions taken from the book "Creating Web Pages with HTML" written by Patrick Carey.

To start the form, we need to use the code <.FORM> and to end <./FORM>. It is also a good idea to name your form for later reference. Simply add NAME=formname in the beginning FORM tag. Example: <.FORM NAME=Survey>....<./FORM>

Keep in mind that we want our form to look nice and easy to read. So to achieve this effect we can insert a simple two column table inside the FORM tags. An example is put the label of each field in the first column and the input boxes in the second column.

Now, there is one general tag that can be used with most of the elements. Its the input tag, <.INPUT TYPE=Option NAME=Text> There are 10 types that can be specified and they are:

1. Button
2. Checkbox
3. Hidden
4. Image
5. Password
6. Radio
7. Reset
8. Submit
9. Text
10. Text Area

Now, TEXT(box) is the property used by default so you can simply leave out the TYPE=TEXT in the INPUT tag. Also when you use the INPUT tag, it is required to use the NAME property. Because the data and field name are paired when the CGI processes and sends the information.


Controlling Size

Moreover, we have more control over these boxes we add to the form. Lets say we need a textbox to be bigger than the 20 character default. To achieve this we will add size to the INPUT tag. Size is the value in characters wide the box will be.

There is another property we can control and it is the maximum length a textbox can hold. We will add MAXLENGTH=value to the INPUT tag. A good example is a social security number. We can make the maximum length to be 9 characters long and this will keep the user from entering false data.

The third control property is a default value. This default value is the text inside the textbox to further explain what data needs to be entered. Lets say you want their web site address. You can add PLEASE ENTER YOUR COMPLETE URL BEGINNING WITH http:// inside the the textbox.

The code needed is VALUE="value" (quotes necessary) in the INPUT tag.


Creating Password Fields

What if you have an instance where you need the data entered to be confidential? Well instead of <.INPUT TYPE=TEXT>, change the type to PASSWORD. Where the data entered is displayed as bullets or asterisks. You can specify size, maximum length, and name for this field. *This field in not encrypted, it only acts as a mask on the display screen.

On To Page 4

Page 4

Creating Forms continued


Creating A Selection List

When you are looking for a fixed set of possible answers the selection list is for you. This guards against mis-spelled words or false entries. To start this field you will need to use <.SELECT NAME=NameOfSelectList> and <.OPTION> for each item in the list. In a selection list like this, the user can only pick one choice but there is a way of giving the user a chance to select more than one. Add <.SELECT MULTIPLE> to your tag.

Here is an example:
<.SELECT MULTIPLE NAME=PrinterTypes>
<.OPTION>HP Deskjet Series
<.OPTION>Cannon Bubble Jet Series
<.OPTION>Lexmark Laser Jet
<.OPTION>Dot Matrix
<./SELECT>


Radio Buttons

Radio buttons are similar to a selection list but only one button can be selected. When coding these buttons you will need to use and INPUT tag for each choice because there is no way for the CGI to tell the items apart. To help you will also need to add VALUE=NameOfItem to the INPUT tags to give a label for each item.

Example <.INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME=name> You can also specify a particular button as the default choice. To do this add CHECKED to the right items tag.


Check Boxes

The next type of INPUT field we will discuss is the checkbox. Its the same INPUT tag where the TYPE is set to CHECKBOX. Also the same goes for the default checkbox, add CHECKED to the INPUT tag of the right item.

Example here:
<.INPUT TYPE=CHECKBOX NAME=name VALUE=labeldescription>


Creating A Text Area

What if you want to add a comments box that is bigger than a textbox? Well You can use the <.TEXTAREA> ... <./TEXTAREA> tags. Be sure to add the end tag. Ok with TEXTAREA you will need specify the amount of ROWS/COLUMNS and a name.

Here is a sample:
<.TEXTAREA ROWS=3 COLS=50 NAME=Comments>default text here

The disadvatage is the text does not automatically wrap inside the box. But there is a wrap property you can set to three choices:

OFF - All text is displayed on a single line until the ENTER key is pressed.

SOFT (or Virtual) - Text wraps automatically to the next row when it extends beyond the width of the text box. The text is still sent to CGI in one line.

HARD (or Physical) - Text wraps automatically to the next row when it extends beyond the width of the text box. Also line wrapping is sent to CGI script.

So use: <.TEXTAREA WRAP=property>... <./TEXTAREA> *depending on your CGI script and server.

Well folks, we are running long here so I will wrap up this discussion next week when we will learn how to use the submit button for the CGI script to process and send the information from the form.

Notice: We had to insert a period after the less than sign to make the tags viewable by your browser. When writting your own code please do not add the period to the tags.

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Page 5

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